BitGo granted in-principle approval in Singapore

Singapore’s financial regulator has granted crypto custody firm BitGo an in-principle approval.
The licence allows BitGo to operate as a Major Payments Instutition (MPI) provider in the country.

Digital asset custody provider BitGo has received a regulatory nod from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The crypto company said in an announcement on Wednesday that Singapore‘s financial regulator had granted it the in-principle approval to operate as a Major Payment Institution (MPI).

The approval expands BitGo’s “global footprint and provides APAC with regulated, secure and trusted solutions,” the firm noted in a post on X.

BitGo receives in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

This expands our global footprint and provides APAC with regulated, secure and trusted solutions.

We applaud Singapore’s sound, clear and robust regulatory framework for digital assets. 🇸🇬… https://t.co/yTbMgudMCf

— BitGo (@BitGo) January 10, 2024

With the MPI licence, BitGo has the greenlight to offer its services in the country as it awaits a full licence from the regulator. When this happens, BitGo will expand its services to include digital payment tokens.

BitGo, which also has regulatory approval from Germany’s BaFin, is bidding to join major crypto players including Coinbase, Ripple and Crypto.com in securing a full MPI licence from MAS. Coinbase recently highlighted Singapore as a key market in the APAC region.

Notably, Singapore’s nod to the wallet provider comes a few days after Hashdex named it as the custodian for its spot Bitcoin ETF.

In August 2023, BitGo announced it had secured $100 million in its Series C funding round, with this raised at a $1.75 billion valuation. The company said it would use the funding on strategic acquisitions and as it looks to position itself as a top crypto wallet and security infrastructure provider.

In October, it revealed a partnership with institutional digital asset infrastructure platform Copper. The alliance is geared towards enabling institutional access to spot and derivative exchanges from regulated cold storage.